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Most candidates for governor back LGBT platform at debate

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
03/26/2014 06:36:50 AM EDT

By Jonathan Riley

Statehouse Correspondent

BOSTON -- Eight candidates running for governor met at a forum Tuesday at which all spoke in favor of addressing concerns of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, community, with the exception of independent candidate Scott Lively, whose anti-gay comments repeatedly received boos and laughter.

All five Democrats and three independents seeking the corner office attended the discussion, hosted by MassEquality and WGBH at the Boston Public Library, while Republican Charlie Baker did not.

"The LGBT community has made great strides in recent years, finally gaining the civil rights that every person deserves," Democratic candidate Joe Avellone said. "Yet we know we still have so much work to do."

"Rates of homelessness in Massachusetts have been going up during the current administration," independent Evan Falchuk said. "That's obviously the wrong direction.

"When you look at the statistics around LGBTQ youth homelessness, so many of them are homeless because they've been kicked out of their homes, because their parents haven't been willing to accept them," Falchuk added. "It's a horrible, horrible thing to imagine going through as a young person."

Falchuk said more state funding should go to organizations that help people in those situations.

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Democrat Juliette Kayyem spoke about the importance of issues related to HIV and AIDS, which have declined but still remain problems for the LGBT community.

"It begins first with prevention and public education," she said. "Secondly, though, is treatment. As a state, we can buy in bulk, we can think of creative ways of working with the private sector and the medical community to reduce the cost of these very expensive and yet life-saving drugs."

On the issue of domestic violence in the LGBT community, Democrat Don Berwick said he sees it as part of a broader problem.

"I think it's part of the general problem of providing services to support healthy families and mental health in our commonwealth," he said. "This has been cut severely."

Lack of funding is also a problem for services for elderly people in the LGBT community, independent Jeff McCormick said.

"When I talk to elders in this situation, they can be in 60- or 70-year committed relationships, and they have to turn their whole lives in a different direction" if they develop a neurological disease, he said.

Finding the money to help people affected, including paying for housing and nursing facilities, will be increasingly difficult, but the state will need to find a way, McCormick said.

"We've got to listen, and you have to be creative, and we have to come up with a solution here," he added.

Lively was the only candidate who opposed almost every position endorsed by the other candidates, saying he was "in this race to advance a biblical worldview."

"As governor, I would ban LGBT propaganda to children" as has been done in Russia, he said.

Lively quoted a bible passage in closing.

Treasurer Steve Grossman, who is running as a Democrat, responded with a different Bible quote in his own closing statement.

"Giving another part of the Bible equal time, I'm going to quote the Book of Deuteronomy, where it says in Deuteronomy 16:20, 'Justice, justice thou shall pursue,'" he said.

Grossman endorsed similar policies to the majority of candidates to address the concerns of the LGBT community, as did Attorney General Martha Coakley, also running as a Democrat.

Coakley said after the forum that she thought it was productive.

"I think we had a good discussion, and most people, I think, are in agreement that we're on the right side of history, that we should keep this movement forward to prevent discrimination and provide services for seniors and kids who need it," she said.

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